Thursday, March 3, 2011

“Child psychology, visa to pre-school teaching” plus 2 more

“Child psychology, visa to pre-school teaching” plus 2 more

Child psychology, visa to pre-school teaching

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:50 AM PST

Ajith PERERA

Montessori teacher is expected to be well equipped with certain subjects that shape and sharpen her in her career. She who designs the future of the country through the dough she handles should have a thorough knowledge on her subject 'Montessori Method'. Further she should have a sound knowledge on Child Psychology and Methods of Teaching in order to cut and polish the gems she handles. Child Psychology, the steering wheel of pre-school education directs the teacher towards success in understanding, helping, accepting and appreciating her students and also helps them to be themselves.

Plato emphasizes that one should "know thyself, accept thyself and be thyself." This concept is very important for the teacher in helping her students in the pre-schools. Teacher is responsible to help children 'know themselves, accept themselves and be themselves.'

Confidence

Teacher who is well outfitted with Child Psychology is like a qualified specialist doctor who could diagnose the illnesses and prescribe medicine. Child Psychology is similar to a visa that opens safe passage to foreign lands. It makes the teacher quite confident before her students and handling any classroom situation. Understanding the children is very important in pre-school teaching. In handling them the teacher should know the children's likes and dislikes and abilities and weaknesses. Child Psychology helps the teacher identify her students' capabilities and disabilities and even to solve all these problems then and there.

Children are different and their moods get disturbed quite often. Sticking to a particular target for few minutes is not an easy task for them. They are bundles of activity. These are the instances the teacher should use her knowledge on Psychology and the Play Way Method to create interest in her students' learning and maintaining it throughout the day. Otherwise the children would not like to turn up the next day.

Children are open and frank. They have nothing to hide. They are innocent. They react soon. Teachers should be vigilant to their reactions. Such reactions should not be neglected because they would cause loss of faith in the teacher. Therefore, the teacher should always keep an eye on the children and use her knowledge on psychology to handle them. If not, the teacher fails before her children and the parents. In order to avoid frustration, teacher should have a thorough knowledge on child-psychology.

Pleasant education

Pre-school is a garden full of beautiful flowers. It is a place of pleasant education where little ones learn through activities and learn through mistakes. Children should be exposed to new experiences from the beginning. Teacher should listen and observe her children because they always have something to say or share. That should not be neglected. Teacher should let them open their hearts and minds before her and voice their opinion. Further, the teacher should let the children be independent.

Education they gain in the Montessori directs them towards their goals in life. Teacher has to understand her little students who are going to be the owners of the future. Montessori is the best place where the children gain socialization. This is an important acquisition because it has much socio-cultural value. In the Montessori children get a chance for adjustment, readjustment, maturation and learning. If the Montessori has a pleasant learning atmosphere and the pre-school mother loves the children, they will undoubtedly attend the Montessori daily and shape themselves for a better tomorrow.

Pre-schools should be located in a pleasant environment conducive to learning. Wide space for indoor and out door activities, a garden with play objects and natural environment that influences maturation and happy learning are a must. Pre-school teachers should consider these basic needs and also the parents should think twice before selecting a pre-school for their children. If the foundation is strong, the construction is undeniably strong. Parents do everything possible and the best for the well-being of their children. Therefore, their selections especially in education should be perfect. Otherwise they are the losers and not any one else.

Head, heart, hand and health

After identifying the child with his inborn talents the teacher's duty is to use her knowledge on child psychology on coaching the child while concerning the four main components head, heart, hand and health. Child needs to be gifted with new knowledge through exposing him to explorations and engaging in activities that lead to improvement of knowledge and experience. Moral values and positive attitudes should also be inculcated in him for socialization and his own well-being among his peer group. Skills are as important as book knowledge and that should be developed through life skills subjects.

Children should be made aware of the need of the good physical and mental health for education and social well-being. Teacher and the parents should know that children need to listen to children's songs, stories and poems for mental growth. Balanced diets especially with grains, green vegetables and fruits make the little ones strong. They need to be made aware that mental and physical health is a treasure.

Though these are broader areas, if the teacher works with the parents collectively while using her knowledge on child psychology, she can do wonders in her teaching and guiding her children. Teacher can encourage parents to organize health programs such as making herbal porridge at least twice a week in the pre-school. Children should be brought closer to healthy natural food rather than fast food that make them sick at the end.

Learning situations

Teacher should be the organizer of the learning situations. Whatever she does with her children and wherever she is with her children she should make it a learning situation for her children. She too should also be like a hen who keeps her chicks under her wings and around her organizes a lot of learning situations. Children need to know more and more. They have questions one after the other. Clever teacher has answers for all their questions. The only support she has is her Montessori education and knowledge on child psychology. Otherwise she will have to deviate from their questioning. That must not be done because the children have the right to know.

The teacher is in the garden with her children to teach them a rhyme. One sees a squirrel and shows the others too and all enjoy how the squirrel eats a fruit. If the teacher asks the children not to look at the squirrel but listen to her song, children prefer to see what the squirrel is doing. Clever teacher should stop teaching her rhyme for a moment and ask all the children to see how the squirrel sits and eats the fruit. She can create a wonderful learning situation. Children should know how animals behave and also they should be nature friendly and nature lovers. Later when every child is satisfied, the teacher can start teaching the rhyme.

Pre-school teacher who deals with the children who are different to each other should read more on child psychology without limiting her knowledge to what she learnt during her training. She has to up date her knowledge on profession to render a yeoman service to the nation.

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Internship Shortages Felt in Psychology Department

Posted: 01 Mar 2011 01:28 PM PST

By Sara Berry

With the number of budget cuts and financial problems faced by the state, shortages are no surprise in education.

Internships, a process that many feel is key to the development of a student, have been partially compromised in the psychology department, according to department chair Laura Bowman. Recently, the department has been very outspoken about the limited availability of internships and independent studies for psychology majors.

According to Joanne Diplacido of the psychology department, each department in the School of Arts and Sciences is given a certain number of credit hours for internships and independent studies, a number that is determined by Dean Susan Pease.

Faculty members receive a certain number of load credits for each internship or independent study that they supervise. Traditionally, each internship or independent study has been worth 0.3 credits. Over the past several semesters, psychology faculty members have agreed to take 0.2 credits per internship to allow all students desiring internships to be able to have them. This semester the department has been given 12 credits, giving them the ability to offer nine internships.

The reasons behind the limiting of internships is not completely clear, but two main arguments that have been addressed are budget concerns and the issue of quality internships in the School of Arts and Sciences.

"We measure quality in part by looking at the output that students have as a result of internships and independent studies," said Bowman. This includes presentations at professional conferences as well as successful job placements, feedback from agencies where interns were placed and student evaluation of their experiences.

"Other departments run their internships differently. Sociology, for example, has a class format as does criminal justice. But communications runs their internships in a similar way to the way that we do, where there's a partnership between the student and the faculty member," said Bowman.

When asked about the possibility of restructuring the internship program in the psychology department, Bowman said "That's something that the faculty decides and this is something that we have been considering for over a year. We're to the point where we feel that it really doesn't work for us and we're not willing to be in a position where that is forced upon us…this situation is one that we feel is a challenge in respect to our academic freedom."

Bowman said that there are between 640-680 psychology majors and that psychology is one of the largest majors on campus along with history, communication and criminology. Because of the large number of psychology majors and their wide variety of interests, using the class format would not work as well for the psychology department as it might for other departments whose students have interests that are more narrowly focused.

"We're currently working on a macro level trying to garner support for our position. We're not the only department that has concerns about the way this is being handled, so we have had some support and interest from other departments, even those who have not necessarily been directly affected," said Bowman.

At a Faculty Senate meeting earlier this semester, communication professor Cindy White thanked the psychology department for bringing up the issue.

Faculty and students in the psychology department alike are stressing the importance of internships as learning experiences and as a means of helping students get into graduate school, as well as providing experience that potential employers look for. Bowman, who serves on the committee that reviews applications to CCSU's graduate psychology program, said that while internships are not required, they add to the strength of an application.

"We put together 100 pages of student testimonials, examples of posters that we've presented at different conferences that are all student driven, and we've given them to the Provost and the Dean," said faculty member Marianne Fallon.

Earlier in the semester, Jason Sikorski and Rebecca Wood brought to the Faculty Senate documentation of the impact that internships have on student experiences and attitudes toward their education and readiness for graduate study.

This semester, the psychology department had 17 students apply for internships and independent studies, but were only able to accept nine of those applications due to the department's 12 credit maximum. Some of the students that applied for internships rearranged their schedules to accommodate their internship but ended up not being able to do an internship and having to add an extra class.

This issue is ongoing, with no clear solution in sight.

"It's not going to be resolved this semester. This is something that will likely take a while longer. We're trying to get it done with as quickly as possible, but the fact is that it's not going to be resolved this semester and may not even be resolved next semester, " said Bowman.

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USD’s Yutrzenka Awarded 2011 Beverly Thorn Award

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 11:41 PM PST

VERMILLION — Barbara Yutrzenka, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Clinical Psychology Program at The University of South Dakota, was awarded the 2011 Beverly Thorn Award for Outstanding Director of Clinical Training Service at the annual meeting of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology last month in Nashville, Tenn.

 Yutrzenka is the fourth recipient of this award since 2008. The Thorn Award recognizes contributions in the development of innovative ways to build and measure program quality, contributions to the community of Directors of Training, demonstrated achievement in assuring good outcomes for graduates of their program and principled advocacy for the scientist-practitioner philosophy of education and training at the local, state, or national level.

A Director of Training for 23 years, Yutrzenka was honored for her outstanding service to clinical psychology as well as her dedication to improved training and research methods. In addition to directing South Dakota's only American Psychological Association accredited doctoral program in clinical psychology, Yutrzenka has been recognized for her excellence as a teacher and advisor, has served as a consultant on professional ethics concerns in the state and region, and has an extensive record of professional presentations and publications in her discipline. Additionally, she was appointed by former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds to serve on the South Dakota Board of Examiners of Psychology in 2005; was a recipient of the USD Chapter of Psi Chi's Outstanding Psychology Faculty in 2008; received the Belbas-Larson Excellence in Teaching Award (tenured faculty member) in 2000; and served on the Board of Directors for the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology for four years.

Yutrzenka received her bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University, and her master's degree and psychology Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota. She joined the faculty at The U as an assistant professor of psychology in 1984.

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